The Mission
Written for a piece of Year 11 assessment in March, 2000 (I got an A for it
J ).Leia hung precariously from the edge of the Sydney Opera House, taking deep breaths and exhaling slowly. She peered over the top only to see that the large mob that had chased her up there had diminished. It was probably safe to come down. The small, seemingly weak rope attached to her waist was all that stopped her from tumbling thousands of feet through the air to an untimely death. She had to put all her faith in it. It was very hard to do. Still, she fumbled with the object in her pocket, checking to see if it was secure. It was. She lowered herself down – very quickly at first, then inch by inch as she approached the next hump of the strange structure.
‘No good disembowelling yourself when there’s a job to be done,’ she said to herself. Continuing on, she bounced off the wall to speed up her descent before landing on the ground with a thump. Quickly, she detached the rope and harness and took off towards the ferries, mixing in with the throngs of tourists. She arrived to find that the ferry had left five minutes ago.
"Damn!"
She nodded to herself and spun on her heel, striding purposefully towards Circular Quay. As she passed a busy McDonalds on the corner of the Quay, a man in a black suit walked out of an art gallery, spotting Leia seconds before she spotted him. She cursed loudly, quickened her pace to a jog, then, after glancing over her shoulder, to a flat run, knocking pedestrians aside. As she went, Leia saw the black suit cross the road at a jog, weaving through the midday traffic.
"Should’ve done this job when it was darker," she cursed as she mentally flipped a coin and jumped into the speeding traffic. Dodging a menacing red panel van, Leia managed to get herself into the middle of the road, doing a quick 360 to check for the black suit. There he was, running flat out along the sidewalk where she had been seconds ago. She had to be fast. Faster than she would like, maybe faster than she could push herself. But she had to try; this was a very important job. So important it could change her future…
‘Stop thinking about the future, Leia, concentrate on the moment or you won’t get that choice.’ She scolded herself not for the first time that day before checking once again for the black suit and crossing over to the left sidewalk. Spotting a side street, she hid behind an industrial bin, praying to the ‘being’ that she didn’t even believe in that the suit hadn’t seen her. She forced herself to gather enough strength to have a peek. The black suit was staring straight at the industrial bin. He had seen her, and he was heading right for her. She slammed her fist into the side of the bin in frustration and anger, then leapt up and ran out to the road, backtracking. The ‘suit’ crossed to the middle of the street, heading towards Leia. Suddenly a grey sedan screamed around a corner, colliding headfirst with the ‘suit’ and sending him flying into the air. He landed with a dull thud. Leia grimaced.
She continued to backtrack her way to the ferries, figuring she could find at least one that was going somewhere towards her desired location. As she passed the suit, she smiled to herself, then quickly wiped the smile away. He was still on the ground; the colour drained from his hands and face. A trickle of blood appeared, seeping from his mouth. Leia looked away.
Dead. Another one. She never meant it to end this way; she never meant that for any of them. She reminded herself that her mission wasn’t completely over yet, she still had to deliver the parcel.
Leia passed through the turnstile at the ferries and read the signs, finding the ferry she wanted. It was due to leave immediately. Waving the ticket she’d bought for her earlier ride, she ran down the jetty and leapt aboard the ferry just as it was moving away. An attendant approached her.
"Miss, you can’t just…" Leia glared at him, flashed her ticket and went inside to find a seat.
Half an hour later, Leia walked calmly off the ferry and up the ramp to the street above. She pulled a map from her pocket and located where she was. Five minutes later she turned into a street, counting the number of houses down before stopping in front of a little house with a purple door. She straightened her hair, smoothed out her shirt and walked up to the front door, patting the parcel in her pocket. Three times she knocked, and then stood back from the door. It opened slowly, and then he appeared. Her heart leapt to her throat.
"Hey, Leia, I didn’t know you lived around here."
"Well, yeah, sort of.
Hey, I scored the last tickets in town to the Star Wars Episode 1 premiere, thought you might like it."
The parcel exchanged hands.
"Wow, I couldn’t find these anywhere! How did you get these?"
"Oh, I dunno, I just picked them up. Hey, I was wondering, do you wanna go with me?"
